


gummy worms

by buoyantsaturn



Series: auctober2020 [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Ice Cream Parlors, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26673586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: Piper organizes a food trade between Will shop and Nico's restaurant, but fails to inform Nico.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: auctober2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939612
Comments: 8
Kudos: 96
Collections: Solangelo Auctober 2020





	gummy worms

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! happy auctober!  
> these are the sorts of ideas that come to mind when you work at an ice cream shop all summer that traded ice cream for dinner with the bar next store pretty much every saturday  
> enjoy!

“I’m  _ starving,”  _ Piper complained, hunching over the ice cream cooler and staring out at the empty seating area. 

“Have some ice cream,” Will told her as he checked the sales total for the day,  _ again. _

Piper rolled her eyes. Will wasn’t watching, but he knew that’s what she was doing.  _ “Please, _ Will, you know I can’t just eat ice cream in the middle of the day. I need a  _ meal, _ and you  _ know _ I save my free ice cream to take home at the end of the day.”

Will sighed and dropped onto his stool. He glanced out the window and his eye caught on the restaurant across the street. “Well, we’re slow right now. You could run across the street and order something from that new restaurant. I’ll even let you take cash out of the tip jar as long as you promise to share with me.”

“Oh, hell yeah!” Piper lunged for the tip jar at the end of the ice cream counter and plunged her hand inside. “Okay, I’ll just get us, like, an appetizer to split or something, and I’ll be as fast as possible! Thanks, Will!”

As Piper ran out of the shop, Will made his way over to the cooler to start cleaning. They had had a busy afternoon, and they were in that usual slow point before the after-dinner rush, so Will needed to make sure the cooler was clean and the ice cream was groomed. He’d already done all that about an hour ago, but he and Piper had each since taken a few sample spoons for themselves. 

He’d barely gotten through grooming when Piper burst back into the store and bumped Will out of the way.

“Woah, that was quick,” Will said, stepping back and letting Piper get at the cooler. She grabbed a to-go cup and one of the scoopers. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“Making a trade,” she answered. “The cook over there, I think his name is Leo, he said he’d trade us some flatbread for a scoop of green mint chip.” 

“Oh. Oh, cool! Free food?” 

“Well, not  _ free, _ because it’s a trade,” Piper told him, “but yeah, he said it could be, like, a thing if we wanted.”

Will nodded. “Alright, but not too often, okay? Let’s not abuse a new friendship.”

Piper grinned. “I think you’ll change your mind once you try their breadsticks.”

* * *

Piper might have abused their new friendship just a little bit, but it meant that Will was getting high quality Italian food at least once a week, and all it took was a few traded scoops of ice cream in return. Will thought it was a pretty great arrangement, until some hot, angry-looking guy came marching right up to the counter in the middle of the slowest day the shop had seen all season. 

Will tried not to show his alarm at the display of such undeserved anger, and he leaned forward with a smile. “Hi there! Welcome to Sunshine Scoops. How can I scoop you today?”

The guy crossed his arms. “I’m not here for ice cream.”

Will glanced around, as though looking for  _ what, _ besides  _ ice cream, _ the man could possibly be there for. “Hm. Can I offer you a handful of gummy worms, perhaps? Or an empty waffle cone? They’re very good, we make them fresh.”

This seemed to only make Short, Hot, and Angry even angrier.  _ “No, _ I’m not here for-- An employee of yours has been stealing food from my restaurant.”

Will dropped his chin to rest on his hand. “Oh? And where did you hear this from?”

“Yesterday, I watched one of your employees leave my restaurant with a takeout box without paying, and I saw her come in here.”

Will started tapping a finger against his lips in thought. “That’s really interesting, because one of  _ your _ employees - Leo, I think? - made a deal with Piper that he would trade ice cream for appetizers every so often. You see,  _ I, _ as the owner of this store, was happy to make this trade, and I had assumed that Leo had cleared it with his boss. I’m guessing that would make you Nico?”

Nico seemed startled at having a stranger know his name, and it seemed to build his guard up even more. He huffed.  _ “Yes, _ I’m the owner of that restaurant, and  _ no, _ Leo  _ didn’t _ clear it with me, and I don’t appreciate the food theft!”

Will let his eyes drag over Nico for a moment, and he smiled to himself. He stepped back from the counter and said, “Okay, well, to make it up to you, I’ll give you some ice cream on the house. No trade necessary. And I’ll even throw in a fresh made waffle cone!” 

He was already pouring batter onto the hot iron when Nico snapped, “I’m not here for  _ ice cream, _ I want you to stop stealing my food!”

Will closed the iron and flipped it to lock it in place, and spun around to face Nico once again. “You look like the type that would enjoy cotton candy ice cream.”

Nico’s nose scrunched up in a way that Will would never admit to thinking was adorable. “Ew, absolutely not!”

The iron beeped, and Will spun back around to pull the waffle off the iron and shape it, and brought it over to the cooler where he grabbed a clean scoop. “Well, you’d better decide which flavor you want quick, or I’m gonna scoop you a triple of cotton candy.”

Nico practically stomped his foot in anger.  _ “I don’t want ice cream!” _

Will grinned. “Alright, if that’s how you really feel.” He opened the cooler and reached toward the cotton candy. 

Before the scoop could make contact with the ice cream, Nico shouted, “Fine!” Will glanced up and saw Nico actually considering the flavors. When he spoke again, his voice was much softer than it had been since he walked in. “What’s in the...midnight caramel river?” 

Will grinned. “Oh, that one’s good. It’s a store favorite. Trust me on this one, you’ll like it.”

* * *

“So did you stop the food trade or not, Nico?” Reyna demanded, standing over Nico where he sat in his office, eating out of his waffle cone with a spoon. “Because, by the looks of it,  _ you didn’t.” _

“I don’t know what happened, Reyna!” Nico exclaimed, waving his waffle cone around wildly. “One minute, I was yelling at him, and the next, I was standing outside with an ice cream in my hand!” He shoved another bite of ice cream in his mouth. “He was just...really charming. And he practically forced this on me!” 

Reyna rolled her eyes and marched out of the office.

Nico dug down deep in his waffle cone, preparing himself another spoonful of ice cream, when he found something else buried underneath the ice cream. 

“A gummy worm?” Nico muttered to himself, and immediately started plotting what food to force onto the owner of that shop across the street. “Oh, it’s  _ on, _ Sunshine.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!  
> check out solangeloweek on tumblr!!


End file.
